closet

[kloz-it]

noun

1. a small room, enclosed recess, or cabinet for storing clothing, food, utensils, etc.

2. a small private room, especially one used for prayer, meditation, etc.

3. a state or condition of secrecy or carefully guarded privacy.

   Some conservatives remain in the closet except on election day. Gay liberation has encouraged many gay people to come out of the closet.

4. water closet.

adjective

1. private; secluded.

2. suited for use or enjoyment in privacy.

   closet reflections; closet prayer.

3. engaged in private study or speculation; speculative; unpractical.

   a closet thinker with no practical experience.

4. being or functioning as such in private; secret.

   a closet anarchist.

verb (used with object)

1. to shut up in a private room for a conference, interview, etc. (usually used in the passive voice).

   The secretary of state was closeted with the senator for three hours in a tense session.

closet

/ ˈklɒzɪt /

noun

1. a small cupboard or recess

2. a small private room

3. short for water closet

4. (modifier) private or secret

5. (modifier) suited or appropriate for use in private

   closet meditations

6. (modifier) based on or devoted to theory; speculative

   a closet strategist

verb

1. (tr) to shut up or confine in a small private room, esp for conference or meditation

Word History and Origins

Origin of closet¹

1300–50; Middle English < Anglo-French, Middle French, equivalent to clos close (noun) + -et -et

Word History and Origins

Origin of closet¹

C14: from Old French, from clos enclosure; see _close ¹

Idioms and Phrases

see come out of the closet; skeleton in the closet.

Example Sentences

Then, teetering on a step stool, I slipped the box onto the top shelf of the hall closet, right behind the Christmas wrap and the three urns containing the ashes of my dead dogs.

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I’m always donating and going through my closet and putting it back into the thrifting community.

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At age 43, he said, he can’t smell Pine-Sol without flashbacks to the supply closet favored by his abusers as a site for their assaults.

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Officers searched the rooms, closets and places a person could hide but couldn’t find Lewis.

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In 1997, the comedy “In & Out” did its shiny, star-studded best to mainstream the story of a closeted gay man in a rock-ribbed American community embracing his truth.

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Related Words

• cabinet 
• container 
• locker 
• room 
• vault 
• wardrobe